THE GOOD: Jeremy Hellickson. Most pitchers would love to go into Fenway park, throw 7 innings, strike out 9, walk 1, and allow just 2 runs. But with the Rays offense in its current state, that is just not enough…Longoria goes long. Evan Longoria hit his first home run of the season and the Rays first in 7 games. But of course, considering the Rays struggles with runners on base, Longo’s home run came with the bases empty.

THE BAD: Boston Marathon Attack. In what must have been a terrifying and stressful situation for the players, they were on a plane heading to Baltimore not long after news of the bombings at the Boston Marathon began to spread. There was also a third bomb that went off at JFK Library. So there had to at least be a small worry in the backs of their minds of not knowing what else would be a target…Offense Continues To Struggle. Ben Zobrist did a great job getting the tying run home in the 9th. But he was stranded on second base with no outs when the next two batters, Evan Longoria and Matt Joyce, struck out and Ryan Roberts popped out. Those last 2 strikeouts were the 24th and 25th in the last 2 games…Molina’s Equipment. Joel Peralta was one strike away from the 2nd out in the 9th inning when a foul ball broke Jose Molina’s mask. This led to a delay of several minutes as Molina needed to replace the mask. It did not appear that Pralta took any warm-up tosses when Molina returned. And when the game resumed, Peralta’s first pitch, a splitter, hung up just enough for Mike Napoli to loop a double off the wall for the walk-off win.

THE TELLING: Evan Longoria remained in the 3rd spot of the order with Matt Joyce hitting cleanup…The Rays are now 4-8, 1.5 games behind the Blue Jays in last place of the AL East and 4 games behind the Red Sox…Luke Scott still hasn’t run the bases, something required before he can begin his rehab.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

Marc Topkin has reactions from the Rays about the bombings in Boston. [TampaBay.com]

Sam Fuld’s parent were near the finish line when the explosions went off. [TBO.com]

Sam Fuld spent the Rays recent off-day practicing with his former high school team. Best part is how he is one of the smallest people in the picture. [Yahoo! Sports]

TR Sullivan says the Rangers would give up Jurickson Profar as the main piece of a package “in the blink of an eye” if it meant landing David Price. [MLB.com]

Kyle Farnsworth and Co. discuss what happens and what to do during a brawl. [TBO.com]

Meanwhile, penalties for charging the mound may be getting more severe. [BI Sports]

I hope Ronde Barber isn’t waiting for a call from The Today Show. [JoeBucsFan]

4 Comments

The pitching, after a rocky start by a couple of starters and most of the bullpen---- has been solid.

Offensively Zo is in midseason form thanks to WBC possibly,; DJ, Longo and Molina are having career average years.

Everyone else is in a massive slump. All are well below even puny career averages and none are hurt much or past thier prime.

So it can't get any worse IMO. I openly wondered in the offseason where our power and RBI's would come from after losing our HR hitters and replacing them with guys who might hit 10 a year max. We have our answer I guess. Myers would have been zero help up to this point just look at his Durham numbers so don't kid yourself..

Zero help? .417 obp, .297 avg. Myers hasn't slugged for much, but he has hit, walked some and (as I've been following the Bulls twitter feed in a desperate search for offense) he has been pretty clutch. Better than the garbage at bats the Rays have been throwing out there.

That said, Anderson and Guyer and Lee have been even better.

Beckham really awful so far. Is it too early to ask if he is the worst No.1 draft pick of all time?

Yes I repeat zero help. I was discussing power. He is 7th on the team in OPS. He is surrounded by hot bats on a first place team facing AAA pitching. All his hits are singles and he strikes out nearly 1 in 4 PA.

Imagine if he was surrounded by ice cold bats facing MLB pitching.

Relax let the kid develop. Im not saying he is doing poorly but he's not doing great yet.

There are maybe 4 or 5 other Bulls who deserve the call up before young Wil.

You can make the case for Leslie, Bougious or Guyer should be here instead of some of the cold Rays.

The first two weeks of April have validated Myers starting in Durham to be a wise move.

George Brett told you and the Rays About Myers, theres NOBODY in Durham that is going to make the Rays start Scoring 4-5 runs a game, Friedman took a "cheap" gamble on the Garbage he signed, Now he gets the Results but NO Heat from the Media or Fans EXCEPT: Ole DON....
Tonight We got Noname going aga the Weaker (from 2012) Orioles, so things will be OK....